The first edition of the European Water Technology Week attracted 1000 participants to Leeuwarden, European Capital of Culture 2018. Most guests attended more than one day, so every day of the congress week we welcomed over 500 people.
The EWTW included the Wetsus Congress, with an extensive scientific program, and WaterLink by Water Alliance, focusing on business in water technology.
A group of international secondary school students was busy at the EIT Raw Materials Science Fair at Wetsus and the Province of Fryslan held the IJsselmeersummit. The water tech tours on Thursday took a lot of people to visit water tech spots in the area, and also part of the program were the Selenium Summit and the kick off of the European project i-WATERMAP. On top of this, the open door day on Saturday, the WaterCampus Experience Day, attracted 3000 visitors.
During the Wetsus Congress, there was a big surprise for dr. Joop Kruithof, member of the Wetsus Program Board. State Secretary Mona Keijzer announced that he had been appointed Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, by the King of the Netherlands. The annual Marcel Mulder Award, for exceptional performances in their research at Wetsus, went to Jaap Dijkshoorn and Victor Ajao.
On Monday afternoon, six water technology hubs from around the globe presented themselves, from Singapore, China, South-Korea, USA, Israel and of course WaterCampus Leeuwarden. A declaration to further expand the cooperation was signed on Wednesday. During the WaterLink part of the EWTW, the pitches to decide the winner of the WIS-Award were held. The winner, out of 10 competitors, is Hydraloop.
Another highlight was on Tuesday: a fireside chat between Constantijn van Oranje, StartUp Delta Special Envoy, and Wetsus’ Cees Buisman, followed by (scientific) parallel sessions. (Interview with Constantijn van Oranje)
The next European Water Technology Week will be held in 2020, in the week starting September 21.
